British Podcast ‘My Dad Wrote A Porno’ Heads To HBO As Comedy Special

My Dad Wrote A Porno co-creator James Cooper revealed Sunday at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that a deal was imminent to bring the hit British podcast to U.S. television and today comes word that it will premiere on HBO as a comedy special in 2019. HBO announced the deal Monday.

Hosted by Jamie Morton, James Cooper and Alice Levine, My Dad Wrote A Porno features Morton reading a chapter from the “Belinda Blinked” series of “erotic” novels, written by his real-life father under the nom de plume Rocky Flintstone, with his friends Cooper and Levine providing uproarious commentary. The podcast has been downloaded more than 100 million times since its launch in 2015.

“My Dad Wrote A Porno shows the extent of just how embarrassing dads can be, in the best possible way,” said Nina Rosenstein, executive vice president, HBO Programming. “James, Jamie and Alice transformed a very awkward situation into an undeniably hilarious experience that we’re excited to share with our audience.”

The HBO comedy special will be produced by Done and Dusted; executive produced by Jamie Morton, James Cooper, Alice Levine and Rocky Flintstone; directed by Hamish Hamilton.

Cooper said yesterday that its U.S. conversations, which began last year, have finally borne fruit. “We’re doing something for TV in the U.S.,” he said. Cooper revealed that it had previously attempted to adapt a pilot based on the podcast, thought to be for a British broadcaster, however, it didn’t work at the time.

The show was created in 2015 by Morton and Cooper, two young television executives, who have worked on series such as The Apprentice and The X Factor, and Levine, one of the UK’s rising on-screen stars, who presents shows such as Big Brother’s Bit On The Side and her own MTV chat show as well as an award-winning Radio 1 show.

The trio have already taken the show out on the road, including U.S. dates. The podcast has attracted a number of A-list fans including Stars Wars’ Daisy Ridley, who joined them for an episode, as well as Elijah Wood, Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachel Bloom. They also accidentally invited Masters of Sex and The Queen star Michael Sheen on stage during one show.

“We’re over the moon and honoured that HBO has decided to help bring Rocky Flintstone’s bad dad-rotica to the world – what are they thinking?!” say Team Porno. “The response to the live show has been incredible so far, so we can’t wait for more people to see it.”